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College Ruled Zipper Pouch

If you can sew a straight line, you can make this. What an amazingly clever yet simple idea. I am often inspired to try my hand at projects I see online at Etsy.com or on other crafting blogs. The moment I saw these notebook paper-themed zipper pouches, I knew I had to try to make my own.

I decided on white flannel, but you could use any white fabric you like. I also chose to line my pouches with sew-in interfacing, which is totally optional. Just gather together white or ecru fabric, white, blue and red thread (I used white aqua and salmon on my reproductions) and a white polyester zipper and you are ready to begin.

I made two pouches. The first one was a pencil case/dice bag; long and thin with widely-sewn lines that looked like grade school paper. The second one was a larger 8×6 inch pouch, and I decided to try a college ruled look, with narrower machine embroidered lines.

First I traced my 8×12 inch measurement onto the interfacing, pinned it to the fabric, and cut both out at the same time to ensure they were exactly the same.

On the fabric-side of the two layers, I sewed two parallel red/salmon-colored lines down the length of the “paper.” Then I sewed blue/aqua lines the width of the “paper.” I used the sewing machine foot as a guide to keep my rows evenly spaced and straight. Happily, throughout the entire project I never had to make any extra bobbins or change my bobbin color from white.

Once the entire piece of paper was complete, I clipped all the threads.

then I pulled out my white polyester zipper, opened it up, and pinned it to the right side (the side with the stitching on it) of the top and bottom of the “paper” and sewed both sides down.

Once the zipper was sewn on I made sure to flip it and top stitch it neatly. Then I zipped it up, inside out, creating a tube.

My next step was to sew up both sides. Make sure to open the zipper a little bit before you do this step, so that it does not get sewn closed with no way to open it!

Next I clipped the extra zipper away and clipped all the corners in preparation to turning it right-side-out.

Once it was flipped and all the corners pushed out and zipped up, here is the finished product!

These zipper pouches were really fun to make, but I do not think I will add these to my Etsy store, since a fellow crafter already does them so well! If you are not in the mood to make one, but love these pouches as much as I do, take a moment to visit her store instead.